Dancers up on the front of the National Gallery being cheered by crowds below. The two dancers leapt from the National Gallery wall into the crowd some 20ft below. Extreme crowd surfing! Police acted to push the crowd further from the bottom of the wall to stop anyone else taking the same leap.

Around 1,700 protesters in a rainy Trafalgar Square. Minor skirmish with police already at the base of Nelson's Column when police attempted to close down and remove a small sound system being run by protestors. Angry screams of vintage anti-police chants accusing them of being "maggie's fascists". Drummers competing with police helicopter. Pubs around the square packed with protesters avoiding the rain.

Evening summary

The protest against Margaret Thatcher's legacy started at 6pm with the popping of champagne corks and chants of "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Dead, Dead, Dead," according to my colleague Mark Townsend.

Here's a summary of the other protests today in London and around the UK:

Anti-cuts groups UK Uncut has carried out a number of direct action protests against the coalition government's bedroom tax and welfare reforms.

Targets for the "Who wants to evict and millionaire" protests included work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith's £2m house and chancellor George Osbourne's constituency office in Knutsford.

Another march by Taxpayers Against Poverty was held in Tottenham, north London, scene of the summer 2011 riots.

Meanwhile in Glasgow thousands of people have protested against the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Demonstrators are converging on Trafalgar Square this evening from across the country, with around 1,200 there already. There is a strong police presence and security guards have also been deployed to protect landmarks such as Nelson's Column.

My colleague Mark Townsend is down in Trafalgar Square where the police and security guards currently still outnumber any protesters.

He reckons there are about 120 protesters currently in the square, with one waving a Class War banner. Around 150 Met police officers have encircled the square. There are also private security guards who have apparently been hired to protect the local landmarks, including Nelson's column.

BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Tom Symonds also estimates the crowd is pretty small but steadily growing.

Press Association have just released this report on the UK Uncut protests

Around 200 people have gathered outside the home of Baron David Freud, minister for welfare reform, to protest against the bedroom tax and benefits cap. People played drums and wrote out postcards to send to Lord Freud as they sat outside his semi-detached house, said to be worth £1.9 million, in Langbourne Avenue, Highgate, North London. Protesters sat in the street on beds and duvets and some held up signs reading: "Who wants to evict a millionaire?" Author and commentator Owen Jones and Green party leader Natalie Bennett came to show their support for the protest, organised by UK Uncut. Mr Jones said: "Lord Freud is an unelected politician from one of the most privileged backgrounds imaginable. "He had no background whatsoever in social security and welfare state, and yet he's one of the figureheads of this Government's offensives against welfare state and social security."Bennett told the crowd: "The rich must pay their taxes, multinationals must pay their taxes and the rich must get their fair share." A neighbour said Lord Freud, who also has a home in Kent, was not in his house this weekend, saying: "He obviously knew what was going to happen I would imagine." The campaign of civil disobedience, organised by UK Uncut, is also holding protests in Birmingham, Manchester and Chelmsford. Meanwhile, 20 disabled people staged a protest at Iain Duncan Smith's country mansion in Buckinghamshire, UK Uncut said. Jim Thompson, from UK Uncut, said: "Lord Freud is one of the key millionaires behind the bedroom tax and behind the housing benefit cut that's going to come in on Monday. He's been integral to pushing those cuts through. "We're here to come and bring the protest to him to show that people are not okay with him sitting in his private estate in his millionaire mansion, with another mansion he's got in Kent."

UK Uncut has uploaded photos of its 'Who wants to evict a millionaire' protest on its Facebook page.

In a statement announcing the end of the direct action today, Sarah Knight, an activists at the protest at Lord Freud's house, said:

My mum has just found out that she will have to pay the bedroom tax. My family is terrified about what’s going to happen. People’s hearts are being broken as this government is turning Thatcher’s wildest dreams into a nightmarish reality. But this protest is not about Thatcher’s death, it’s about the ongoing assault on the welfare state.

Emma Cowing also reports via twitter that police in George Square, Glasgow confiscated the burning effigy of Margaret Thatcher after the Union flag attached to it also began to burn. Without an effigy to burn the protesters did a conga and chanted "Maggie maggie maggie, dead dead dead".

Meanwhile in Glasgow, thousands have protested against Trident. The Press Association reports:

Hundreds of people including trade union members, MSPs and anti-austerity campaigners have taken part in a march against nuclear weapons.

Organisers, the Scrap Trident coalition, led the demonstration through the centre of Glasgow and held a rally in the city's George Square. The coalition wants to see the UK Government dispose of nuclear weapons and instead use its budget to fund health, education and welfare.

The rally is part of a weekend of events which will see workshops in George Square tomorrow and a blockade of the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde on Monday, where Trident missiles are stored. The demonstration grew in size as it wove its way through St Vincent Street, Argyle Street and Ingram Street.

A police spokesman at the scene estimated that up to 2,000 people were marching.

One of the march organisers, Brian Larkin, co-ordinator of the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre, said Trident should be scrapped and the money put into "human needs" instead. "We want the resources that go into Trident to fund disability benefits, create jobs, scrap the bedroom tax, fund the NHS, fund education and fund welfare," he said.

UK Uncut have chosen today to protest outside the homes of millionaires who they blame for the government spending cuts. They haven't yet said where they will protest but George Osborne's constituency office in Knutsford and Ian Duncan Smith's "£2 million mansion" in London are targets.

Now that BBC have decided that they will only play a short clip of Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, on Sunday's Radio 1 chart show, what will they do if they face the same predicament next week when they may have to play I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher by the Notsensibles, which is being promoted by Thatcher fans such as Louise Mensch.

The 1980s were a decade of protests and riots from Belfast to Brixton but the fury of the 1990 poll tax protests is still shocking. The police seem unprepared and outnumbered in this video and it's more like a street fight than a political protest.

Thatcher road trip

Following the former prime minister's death, John Harris and John Domokos took a two-day tour around post-Thatcher Britain, from post-industrial south Wales, via Bristol and Maggie's own M25, and on to the heart of the right-to-buy revolution. They found opinions on her to be just as fierce and divided as they were in the 1980s.

Although the anti-cuts group says its protest is separate to the demonstration this evening in Trafalgar Square, activists believe the current government's welfare cuts are a direct result of her legacy.

Activist Jackie Smith said:

The bedroom tax is the poll tax of our times. This government is continuing Thatcher’s radical economic plan of privatisation, slashing of benefits, union smashing and deregulation that ensure that big business, wealthy people and banking system benefit while we pay the price. We need to continue to resist these devastating ideological policies that are tearing apart communities. Margaret Thatcher may have died but her policies are alive and well. We need to resist them and we will bring the cuts home to those who are implementing them to show that we will not stand for these devastating, unfair and unnecessary cuts.

Brixton Blog is covering the UK Uncut action in Brixton. You can also follow the local UK Uncut group on Twitter @BrixtonUncut.

Tony Smith, who worked as a miner in a Nottinghamshire pit before it was closed in 1989, said he understood the argument that it was inappropriate to celebrate an elderly person's death. "But the strength of ill-feeling is so deep it overrides any reservations," he said. "We've lived under Thatcher's shadow for many years. It split families right down the middle and that resentment is still going on."

Margaret Thatcher protesters gather in London

Thousands of protesters are expected to converge on London today to protest against the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and the coalition government's benefit cuts.

Amid a growing political row over the pomp of the former prime minister's funeral three separate protests are expected in the capital on Saturday.

The main protest, a demonstration against Thatcher's legacy, is due to start in Trafalgar Square at 6pm. Former miners from Wales, Durham and Yorkshire, who blame Thatcher's policies for devastating their communities, will be joining socialists, Travellers, students and anti-capitalist protesters at the protest, which has been promoted through various Facebook groups.

Tensions were ratcheted up on Friday when the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said police were prepared for outbreaks of disorder. Hundreds of Met police officers will be kept "kitted up" and ready to be deployed rapidly at any flashpoints, with police chiefs determined that control of the streets will not be lost as in the 2011 riots or the attack on Millbank Tower in November 2010 during student protests.

Anti-cuts protesters UK Uncut are holding a separate demonstration against the coalition government's "bedroom tax" and benefit cap. The direct action group has promised to target "millionaire misery-makers" over the cuts. Protesters are gathering in London from 11.30. The group has not revealed the exact targets for the protests in central London, Brixton, Birmingham, Chelmsford and Manchester but says they will involve hundreds of activists.

Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of the day's political developments as they happen, including Lady Thatcher's coffin coming to the Commons and a debate on planning which is expect to see Tory MPs rebelling against the government

Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of the day's political developments as they happen, including Lady Thatcher's coffin coming to the Commons and a debate on planning which is expect to see Tory MPs rebelling against the government